Hurricane Galveston Essay

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Throughout the course of history many natural disasters have challenged America and have caused unforgettable devastation. Our nation has experienced it all such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and wild fires. Perhaps, the deadliest natural disaster in American history as far as this day is to be Hurricane Galveston in 1900. The United States suffered a great loss of Americans on September 8, when a category four hurricane formed the city of Galveston, Texas. Hurricanes are categorized by their wind speed and hurricane Galveston reached a measure concentration that matches to a modern-day Category 4 storm. Catastrophic damaged occurred, it is recorded that that hurricane Galveston destroyed more than 3,600 buildings. It was possible for the hurricane …show more content…

The United States suffered a great loss, but it did not stay down. The Galveston Hurricane the first known case of a big catastrophe. It was a horrible calamity, but also a chance to learn from our mistakes. That is exactly what Americans did, they took matters into their own hands and decided that something like this would not affect them the same way it did. Instead they would put up a fight and more than a century later we have been able to maintain control during harsh times. It was predicted by professionals that the city of Galveston would never be rebuilt from the hurricane. It was suggested to leave everything behind and to abandoned the city. Rather than abandoning the city, the citizens of Galveston saw this as an opportunity not just to fix, but to remake the city and reform its government. Thus, trying to make Galveston less vulnerable to future storms and flooding. Therefore, a seawall was started in construction and the raising of the city by as much as twenty feet above its previous elevation. For the locals, it was all about learning from what they did wrong the first time and not allowing the same mistakes to happen again. Years shortly a storm hit Galveston, similar to the previous hurricane and it turned it out with no deaths. Many believed that the city was too far north and that a hurricane would not reach or form. Soon after, they knew to take the threat of hurricanes very seriously and to be prepared to evacuate. Building a 17-foot sea wall along three miles of oceanfront gave the population a bit of hope that they would be fine. The locals now knew that they were not immune to hurricanes and the best solution to deal with a hurricane is to evacuate, plain and simple. The most important lesson that was not followed was obeying and realizing the warnings given during hurricane Galveston. Two thirds of the corpses were of women and children, due to those in control at home

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